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Trump Grants Clemency to Former Soldier Convicted of Murdering Iraqi Prisoner
© AP Photo / Vanessa Gera
US
10:41 07.05.2019Get short URL
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Back in 2008, US Army 1st Lt Michael Behenna shot a suspected al-Qaeda operative, Ali Mansur Mohammed, to death avenging the demise of two members of the lieutenant's platoon who had been killed in a blast. The next year, Behenna was sentenced to 25 years in jail but had his sentence reduced by ten years and was released on parole in 2014.
US President Donald Trump has pardoned former US Army first lieutenant Michael Behenna, of Oklahoma, who was convicted in 2009 of murdering an Iraqi prisoner.
White House Press Secretary, Sarah Sanders, said in a statement that President Trump had signed an executive order granting full clemency to the former soldier.
"Mr Behenna's case has attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public", White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said. "While serving his sentence, Mr Behenna was a model prisoner. In light of these facts, Mr Behenna is entirely deserving of this Grant of Executive Clemency".
Michael Behenna was tried by a military court in 2009 for executing the detainee suspected of having ties with al-Qaeda.
READ MORE: Decorated US Navy SEAL Under Investigation for Committing War Crimes in Iraq
At the trial, the former lieutenant confessed that instead of following the order to take the prisoner home, Behenna took the man to a railroad culvert, stripped him naked and interrogated him at gunpoint over a roadside blast that had killed two fellow soldiers. Behenna said that the detainee had moved towards him prompting him to shoot the man in self-defence.